tension between israel and egypt's new islamist government has increased since the attacks with egypt recalling its ambassador to israel in protest. richard haass, also an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council last night. sift through this for us. how big is this? how significant is this in the middle east right now? >> well, it's big for lots of reasons, because it's not happening in isolation. one is you have the largest military clashes between israel and hamas in, what, four year now, and it's not going to stop. at times it doesn't matter in the middle east exactly why things begin. over the last few months there have been hundreds of rocket attacks, now this, then retaliation. it just happens. second of all, it's happening in the absence of anything political. there's no dialogue going on whatsoever between israelis and palestinians. this can't substitute for this. thirdly, egyptians withdrew their ambassador. since 1967 and really since not long after that when sadat, the relationship has been peaceful. it's been codified by treaty. it is the basis of peace in the middl